


The Easy Part

by Redbone135



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-20
Updated: 2019-12-20
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:35:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21876010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redbone135/pseuds/Redbone135
Summary: Short drabble where Brick contemplates his role and commitment to the B-Team.
Relationships: Brick/Mordecai (Borderlands)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 30





	The Easy Part

When they had first announced they were going off-world, people had made jokes. Imagine, Brick and Tina trying to eat cement and Mordecai having a stroke trying to stop them. Imagine, Brick and Tina having a competition to see whose shield can take the most grenades while Mordecai calls the emergency room on speed dial. Imagine, big dumb Brick and tiny crazy Tina giving 'The Voice Of Reason' more grey hairs.

Well, anyone who thought he wasn’t the voice of reason had vastly misunderstood the petty little man with impulse problems that Brick had chosen to spend his life with. 

As he pulled up to the little cottage they’d bought on Eden-6 last summer, he turned the lights of the Technical off. He felt guilty for it, but it had become routine on long days like today. He wasn’t ready for them to know he was home just yet.

The voices from inside the little cottage were loud. Arguments he could only half understand floating through open windows, carrying to his ears as he opened the car door as quietly as possible, shutting it just as noiselessly.

“Tina, you’re wasting your time complaining, just put it in your mouth and eat the damn vegetables!”

“ Estoy molesto! Muy Molesto! Your face is molesto-ing me!”

“Estás jugando? So help me God-”

“God can not help you now!”

There was a loud crashing noise and with a heavy sigh Brick made his way around to the back of the Technical to unload the crates of supplies he’d picked up on his way home tonight.

This was supposed to be the easy part. He had always thought falling in love would be hard- being in love would be easy. 

He had spent nights awake across the campfire, longing for Mordecai to return his feelings. He had spent soberingly cold nights out in The Cuts pining for a man he thought might never love him. He thought, ‘If only he could love you back- that would be the easy part.’

He chuckled to himself, setting down the crates in the storage shed the little family kept well stocked with all their supplies. The doors creaked, but the two inside were so busy yelling they couldn’t hear. And _he_ was supposed to be the loud one.

Once Mordecai had decided to love him, he thought things would only get easier from there. But balancing their schedules had been a nightmare. When Brick and Lilith fumed at the sight of each other, when one had to be a Raider and the other a Slab, when Brick loved with nothing less than his whole heart and Mordecai handed out slivers of his so rarely to anyone- being a new couple on Pandora had most certainly not been the easy part. He would spend lonely nights missing Mordecai’s warmth in his bed, thinking, ‘If only we could get off this damn planet- then the rest would be the easy part.’

He heard a low growl as he kicked the shed door closed and turned to see Enrique hovering over an empty food bowl, seconds away from barking. Brick hushed him, letting one big hand engulf the dog's head in a friendly pat, the other picking up the metal bowl.

They’d gotten the dog for Tina. Brick had been against the idea from the beginning. 

‘Mi vida,’ Mordecai had coaxed, ‘Think of how good a dog can be for a growing child. Teach her some responsibility. Think of how good Pris was for you. How many times Blood saved my life. A child should have a pet.’

And so after months of begging and cajoling and crying on the parts of both Tina and Mordecai, Brick had relented. He’d made Tina promise she would feed it. Mordecai swore he’d clean up after it.

He laughed again to himself as he made his way over to the food bins, heaping a generous scoop into the empty bowl and watching with satisfaction as the eager pup gobbled it up.

The dog was for Tina. And yet it was always Brick who ended up feeding it. Always Brick who took it for morning jogs and gave it baths when it started to stink. 

Slowly he sunk down next to it, patting it’s thick flank as it swallowed as much food as it could in it’s tiny puppy mouth and Brick practiced swallowing his own resentment as well. 

When they’d decided to go off-world, when Tina and Mordecai had finally decided to be a family, he had thought to himself, ‘this must be the easy part.’ He had never thought he was going to be a Papa- men like him back on Menoeitus had a hard enough time finding partners. Children would have been unheard of. The prejudices had been part of why he left- they angered Mordecai into a blind rage every time he mentioned them casually- but in a way he was thankful because those terrible ideas that had permeated his childhood reminded him how lucky he really was to have a husband like Mordy and a daughter like Tina.

Because on nights like tonight, he didn’t always feel so lucky. 

Life had turned out to be harder than Brick had ever imagined it could be. Even now, as Enrique turned to lick his face in thanks, he could still hear the squabbling inside and thought about just how much he didn’t want to go in. It was shameful, and it was weak, and he had never been either as far as he was concerned, but some nights he just wanted his space, a little bit of quiet, and the relief of knowing that no one was counting on him. 

“Just wait till my father gets home!” Tina was yelling in that silly baby voice she refused to give up despite being well into her teenage years.

“Fine, eat nothing but cookies. I hope you choke on them!”

Brick shook his head. 

He knew Mordecai was jealous of how well he and Tina got on. He knew Mordecai complained that even though Tina had been his daughter first, she had abandoned him for Brick in less time than it took for him to introduce himself. Mordecai would rant and rave and scream and Brick would stand there and let him get all his anger out. And it was exhausting sometimes.

Because the real reason Mordecai and Tina went head to head so often was because she was just a much smaller version of the scrawny sniper. No wonder she took to Brick so quickly. Mordecai had too. Sometimes, when they would fight about it, Brick would look at the little hateful man he loved the same way people loved medicine- it was hard to swallow, but it made you feel better- and think ‘You’re just like your father, some days.’ He would never say it- unlike his passionate partner he knew how to bite back hateful words- but just because he knew how didn’t mean it was easy. Some days it was harder than others.

Some days it was all he could do to come home, his joints aching from mercenary work he and his husband were getting too old for, and not hulk out over Tina’s teenage tantrums. Some days, like tonight, he sat with Enrique for an hour before finding the courage to walk in through that little door and settle whatever petty fight the two time-bombs in his life were arguing over now. Mordecai had such strong ideas in his head about what was right. Tina should eat vegetables (why? Brick hated them too!) She should be learning to read (Ok, but when was the last time Mordecai read a book?) and most recently she should be trying to make friends her own age (Do you want their blood on our hands?). Mordecai had so many strong convictions and sometimes Brick just wished he would let them all go.

But that wouldn’t have been the man he had married.

And if Brick was being honest with himself, he knew he wasn’t the only one in their little family who had a hard time every now and then. 

He knew there were nights where their rules made Tina want to leave a trail of bed sheets out her second story window. Run away with Enrique- who she would have to start feeding- and never look back. That sometimes she needed her freedom and being treated like a child was just too much.

He knew too, that he wasn’t the only one starting to show his age.He pretended not to notice the new grays in Mordecai’s beard, brushed off frustrated apologies of impotence as if they meant nothing to him. They didn’t, but they meant a lot to Mordecai whose pride was sometimes the largest thing about him. He knew there were nights where the surly sniper just wanted a stiff drink and to start The Fight that would end everything and cause Brick and Tina to leave him forever.

Yes, on nights like tonight, where he was tired and resentful, Brick thought he couldn’t wait much longer for ‘the easy part’ to arrive. 

But he came home every night. And Tina never did sneak out. And Mordecai stayed sober.

Because ‘the easy part’ was a myth.

Life was hard.

But life without each other- that was impossible.

And so he rose, joints popping as he did, making his way back around the little house to the front door and pushed inside as if he had just arrived.

His resentment melted the moment his eyes fell on his frustrated husband, his beautiful fiery daughter, both hovering around the dinner table where a plate of peppers and onions sat like a tense hostage negotiation.

“PAPA!” Tina cheered, running over to him and wrapping her arms around his thick waist, using him as a shield between herself and her Mordy-mom, “He’s trying to kill me!”

Mordecai sunk back into his chair, his voice a soft string of Spanish. Brick never had learned it like Tina, but he knew when his husband was too tired for English it was time to step in.

“Tina, sit your ass down, Mordecai is just trying to keep you healthy,” he said, pushing her firmly back to her own seat as he began to fix himself a plate from the stove, placing a heavy hand on Mordecai’s shoulder. “Don’t get up, honey, I’ve got it.”

Smiling he sat down with his own plate of Mordecai’s cooking- which had fortunately improved over the years- and digging in. He hadn’t realized how hungry he was, and so as he finished his own he began to pick at the extras on Tina’s plate- causing her to stab the little vegetables with her own fork and shove them greedily into her mouth. That had always been the trick with Tina- she wanted what you had, not what you were offering. Mordecai never had understood that- then again- Mordecai was the same stubborn way. It was why they couldn’t keep a drop of alcohol in the house.

“Shit!” Tina said, through a mouth of vegetables, standing quickly. “I forgot to feed Enrique!”

“Don’t worry about it,” Brick said, gently tugging her back into her seat. “I took care of it.”

“Lo siento, mi vida. We just got so busy today- I didn’t even have time to get groceries.”

“Took care of that too,” Brick said, shoveling another spoonful into his mouth, “They’re out in the shed.”

‘Thank you,’ Mordecai mouthed, running a thumb lovingly over Brick’s wedding ring and sending a warm quiver through Brick’s stomach as Tina continued to fight him for the peppers on her plate.

There were hard days.

But loving them was the easy part.

**Author's Note:**

> Told myself I'd work on my original works today. Started a chapter for that called "The Hard Part" and ended up with this instead...


End file.
